In the past, heat deformable products have been used to hold items together, i.e. a bundle of wire or to protect the surface of some article to allow for a better grip, i.e. a handlebar. All of these objectives were achieved by placing a heat shrinkable tube about the article and applying heat to cause the tube to shrink and conform tightly about the article.
However, there have been certain objectives to which such shrinkable tubing would lend itself except for the fact that, although the tube shrinks snugly about the article, it does not result in a water-tight or dust-tight seal nor does the tubing offer effective cut through resistance.
The use of a melt liner bonded to the shrinkable tube which, upon heating of the tube (and thereby causing it to shrink about the article) caused the melt liner to flow in an attempt to fill the voids and seal the article within the shrunken tubing is one approach to solving the sealing problem. However, this did not solve the cut through resistance shortcomings of these tubes or sleeves.
In those heat shrinkable sleeves having fiber reinforcement introduced into them it has been found that unless specific requirements are adhered to the fiber reinforcement interferes with the shrink tubing when it is caused to return to its original shape (as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,253,618 and 3,253,619).
Therefore, what is needed in this art is a heat deformable article having a melt liner which flows easily and uniformly resulting in a more complete sealing of the enclosed article and which contains a fiber reinforcement layer to improve the cut through resistance of the shrunken article.